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Five races held at 49er Europeans

After no sailing yesterday, the Gold fleet was sent out for an early start and what turned out to be a long day. Following the stormy night, the sailors woke up at 6am and reached the harbour at 8.30.

When they arrived, the wind was still sleeping and the sailors could hardly wake up. Would the wind come? The race committee went out on the course where a light wind of 5 knots had settled in. The 49ers came to the starting are but the wind had dropped under the burning sun. Finally the wind increased slowly to reach 18 knots and the sailors and the spectators were treated to five spectacular races. Racing was close, the sailors showing a high standard with lots of action and incidents.

As the Games get nearer the tension in the Gold fleet was rising and there were numerous protests.

Confusion at the finish line of the second race meant some of the boats finished incorrectly. However, the jury decided to cancel the race. Alex Tobutt, who crews for Alistair Richardson, still had a smile on his face even though his win was taken away from him.

Gary Boyd from the Australian team said: “There were a lot of ups and downs today!” For the spectators, it was quite hard to figure out who was leading this fleet…A team could lead and then drop in the shifting winds. At the finish of the third race there was another exciting incident when five boats capsized on top of each other. The silver fleet had also some trouble in the increasing wind with some close action on the starting line.

One of the few girls sailing the 49er is the German Kerstin Beucke who was excited at the prospect of sailing but apprehensive as she watched the wind increase.

The Norwegian team of Christoffer Sundby and Frode Bovim retain the lead in the Gold fleet and they are followed by the British pair of Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks.

Provisional results after 10 races:
1. Christoffer Sundby/Frode Bovim NOR6 24pts
2. Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks GBR2 29pts
3. Chris Nicholson/Gary Boyd AUS 13 32pts
4. Tim Wadlow/Pete Spaulding USA 5 33pts
5. Jonas Warrer/Peter Kruger DEN18 35pts
6. Nico Delle Karth/Nico Resch AUT29 40pts
7. Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes GBR9 40pts
8. Marc Audineau/Stephane Christidis FRA21 46pts
9. Michael Hestbeck/Dennis Dengsoe DEN4 47pts
10 Thomas Johanson/Jukka Pirainen FIN10 49pts